.24 & .39 of failure
I went as hard as I could, threw down my best race, and missed the 1000m Olympic trials qualifying time by .24 on Sunday, and .39 seconds on Saturday. It hurt, a lot, and I am not talking about race pain.
I will have my final chance to qualify next weekend. I know I will be skating faster than the qualifying time of 1:16.08 soon, but maybe not soon enough.
Pictured below is my transition into corner #3 on Saturday. Given my 27.2 second lap time, this is roughly 33 mph. Shoulders square, good lean & drive. Technically, this was about as good as I can do. I did have a lactic-acid train wreck on the last 200m of this race, but that is the 1000.
I should not be as hyper-competitive about this as I am. Only 22 men in the USA have skated faster than the qualifying time this season, and they are all full time athletes whose job is speedskating.
I do work a lot, and have Daddy responsibilities on top of that. But yaknow, the forces that drive athletes spring from irrational wells within us. My mind knows I’m only about 1 second slower in the 1k than I was when I was training full time. My heart, however, is stupid.
It’s not age, I’m sure of that, this season more than ever. The hard thing is creating the time to train & prepare the very complex puzzle pieces that create a fast speedskating race.
One really good thing about being a Dad is that after the races, when I was feeling like burned crap, I hear this familiar squeak from the edge of the rink. I went and picked up my daughter, and skated a lap with her, making zoomy airplane noises.
She was so happy, and did not want me to stop. It lifted my spirits hugely. Thanks for being there RZ, your joy is so much more than any skate-induced pain.
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Filed under: RACE DAY
